Friday, June 30, 2017

Year of the waterfalls


Meeks Creek Falls
This year the Reno-Tahoe area is awash with waterfalls. You will find waterfalls and streams of cascading water at places you may remember as dry or barely wettened by water. My top discovery this spring was the splashing water of Meeks Creek off the Tahoe Yosemite Trail near its north-end trailhead at Meeks Bay.

A waterfall next to Van Sickle Trail
A waterfall next to Van Sickle Trail
While hiking or mountain biking along the Van Sickle Trail, one passes various smaller falls framed by lush green trees and bushes: scenic waterfalls on one side of the trail and spectacular vistas of Stateline, Lake Tahoe and the Pacific Crest when view-switching to the other side.

All that is left of the Thunder Mountain Trail waterfall bridge
All that is left of the Thunder Mountain Trail waterfall bridge
Impressive cascading falls can also be seen near the Village at Squaw Valley: climb uphill on Thunder Mountain Trail toward Squaw Peak for about one mile and you will be in front of water rushing down from the upper skiing slopes and camps. The trail bridge over the line of waterfalls didn't survive the winter season. In case you want to continue uphill or get onto the Western States Trail, you need to detour via the maintenance roads.

More waterfalls—wild or serene—can be found in the Carson Range east of  Lake Tahoe: Hunter Creek Falls near Reno, Galena Creek's Tamarack Peak Waterfall southwest of  Mount Rose,  Carson City's Lower Kings Canyon and Upper Kings Canyon waterfalls and  Genoa Canyon's waterfall west of Genoa (see Genoa Trail Systems)

No comments:

Post a Comment